The trilling chant of the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, rang out Sunday afternoon at the humble little white house behind a green fence that is South Floridas oldest mosque. Inside, a dozen men and one boy  shoes left outside as a cleansing gesture  quietly recited prayers and bowed to Mecca.

....Dozens of federal agents appeared at early Saturday morning prayer to arrest Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan, the frail 76-year-old imam, and two of his sons, one who led the Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen Mosque in Margate, on charges of funneling money to the Pakistani Taliban to buy weapons and support militant training. All three are scheduled to make a first appearance in federal court on Monday.

When U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer and FBI John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Miami Office, announced the arrests they both stressed that other mosque members and the rest of the community should not be branded by the alleged terrorist actions of a handful of its members. Ferrer, in a phone interview Sunday with The Herald, reiterated that message.

They are as American as apple pie, he said. They are just as concerned about terrorist attacks as anyone else. They do not want to live in fear.

.....Along with the outreach meetings, the U.S. Attorneys Office earlier this month hosted a training session at Broward College in Davie for 65 federal, state and local agents and officers aimed at at enhancing law enforcement officers cultural competence and sensitivity on issues involving the Arab, Muslim and Sikh American communities

Ferrer said his message to Muslim leaders is that they should not feel isolated. We want to make it very clear that we are their U.S. attorney, we are their Justice Department...................

Under questioning, Attorney Gen. Holder was surprisingly forthright in admitting that the hate bill is not intended to protect everyone, or even the majority. He said only historically oppressed minorities were to benefit. This means Jews, blacks, homosexuals, women, etc. Holder made it clear that if a white Christian male, including a serviceman or police officer, was the victim of a violent hate crime by any minority he would have to find redress from traditional law. He could not avail himself of the triple penalties and rapid government/justice system response given a protected minority.

Barack Obama

Univision interview: "If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies, and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us' -- if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election -- then I think it's going to be harder. And that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2nd."

If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun, Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. ....

"You know, they said we needed to triple the border patrol. Well, now they're going to say we need to quadruple the border patrol," said the president. "Or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." --explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters.

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society."

If in fact they are “as American as apple pie” then let them STAND UP and PUBLICALLY condemn any and all terrorism around the world. They should also condemn the terrorists who initiate and perform these cowardly acts.

Until such time as they do this I am content to consider any who don’t complicit in the actions of the savages.

Feds seek trust of Muslim community (”They are as American as apple pie”)

Yes citizen your Government really thinks you are this stupid.
America was founded for freedom and liberty.
If you are a muslim you should be a follower of islam which is founded in oppression, fear, and death.
You CAN NOT be a true muslim and a real American

I sure hope the feds did not take their shoes off to go in and collar the perps...

".... After the heavily armed agents flooded the grounds of the Flagler Mosque, a small converted house in a modest neighborhood west of Milam Dairy Road and north of Flagler Drive, they waited for morning prayer to finish before arresting Khan outside.

Instead of barging in with 25 agents and trampling all over the place, one agent took off his shoes and went in, he said. They respected the congregation that was there.

After the arrest, agents informed other Muslim leaders before going public, Ba-Yunus said, so there was some lead time to prepare for media inquiries. Ba-Yunus saw those steps as progress stemming from meetings with federal authorities....."

If I wanted to gain their trust I would figure out a way to take the suspects into custody without using their prayer service and mosque a part of the scenario. Personally I have no problem with how it was handled, but it’s certainly not the way to engender trust.

Common sense tells me it would have been much safer to wait for the service to end and have a couple of agents, with lots of out of sight back up, make the pickup. I would be concerned that “flooding” the compound with armed agents would be sufficiently threatening to an unstable attendee to push him over the edge.

22
posted on 05/16/2011 5:45:46 AM PDT
by jwparkerjr
(I would rather lose with Sarah than win with a RINO!)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.